I spent a few hours watching television over the weekend which is a pretty rare occurrence for me. During the time I was watching, I noticed that most of the car manufacturers were really trying to get on our good side by inundating us with ads about Hybrids and Fuel Cell vehicles. High gas prices have definitely been a sore spot for many Americans recently and I guess this is their way of trying to show us that they're trying help the situation.

I wonder though, how helpful are they really being?

Fuel Cell vehicles are still many years off and are not currently a viable solution to the problem. Hybrid cars are here now, and many hybrid versions of pre-existing models are constantly flowing into the market. This should make hybrids our current best solution... right?

The car manufacturers would definitely like us to believe that, but I'm not so sure. 

Currently SUVs feature some of the worst MPG ratios and though their hybrid counterparts do improve on their performance, the benefits are marginal and still far worse than non-hybrid cars that have been available for years. Cars like the Civic and Corolla have always been relatively easy on the wallet where gas is concerned. 

I'm definitely a huge advocate of new technologies that reduce our dependence on fossil fuels and I do believe that hybrid cars are a step in the right direction but it seems that, right now, auto-manufactures are simply using them as a way to get into our wallets. They're focusing on 'green' as a fad and not as a solution.